Suppression of epileptic seizures through sensory stimulation: A historical overview and assessment

Neurologists often encounter medically refractory epileptic patients, who manage to suppress focal motor seizures by means of various types of sensorimotor stimulation. The aim of this article is to provide a critical evaluation of the historical investigations of such abatement methods. Peripheral therapies for epilepsies have been recommended since antiquity, but it was not until the nineteenth century that physicians mentioned patients reporting being able to stop seizures by sensorimotor mechanisms. Both the reports of patients and the analysis of the various methods used became more accurate with the descriptions by physicians such as Louis Odier (1748-1817) and Théodore Herpin (1799-1865). John Hughlings Jackson (1835-1911) and William Richard Gowers (1845-1915) provided a more solid theoretical framework for (somato)sensory interventions by developing new insights into brain control of movement sequences that are well within the range of current hypotheses. In more recent studies, individual reports of successful inhibition of seizures continue to appear. The wide array of historical studies of peripheral sensory stimulation methods offers a valuable source of information for future research that may potentially lead to new therapeutic avenues and to greater effectiveness in the management of the disease burden.